Laser inscribed waveguide optical isolators in iron-doped lithium niobate.

There is a growing need for optical isolators that do not require a magnetic field, especially for uses such as on-chip optical devices and cold atom physics. As one approach, we propose using waveguides in photorefractive materials, such as :, as optical isolator devices due to their unique asymmetric transmission properties that allow low loss transmission in one crystal orientation and attenuation in the flipped orientation. We utilize ultrafast laser inscription to fabricate photorefractive depressed cladding waveguides in : along the crystal axis to demonstrate the operation of : waveguide optical isolators.

Continuous wave Fe:ZnSe mid-IR optical fiber lasers.

Today fiber lasers in the visible to near-infrared region of the spectrum are well known, however mid-infrared fiber lasers have only recently approached the same commercial availability and power output. There has been a push to fabricate optical fiber lasers out of crystalline materials which have superior mid-IR performance and the ability to directly generate mid-IR light. However, these materials cannot currently be fabricated into an optical fiber via traditional means.

Rapidly tunable HIP treated Cr:ZnSe narrow-linewidth laser.

A narrow - linewidth, hot isostatic treated Cr:ZnSe laser was non - mechanically tuned over a total wavelength range of 195 nm by a novel organic liquid crystal etalon. The narrow - linewidth laser was continuously tuned by applying a 1 kHz square wave signal of 1 - 5 V to the intracavity 9 THz nominal free spectral range liquid crystal etalon. The maximum and minimum lasing wavelengths were 2650 nm and 2455 nm, respectively, and a maximum average output power of 475 mW was recorded at 2503 nm.

Path to doubling the efficiency of mid-IR erbium lasers.

It has been experimentally shown that a Cr:ZnSe optical amplifier can be successfully used for self-amplification of the cascade Er:YO laser. This is to our best knowledge the first demonstration of an optical amplifier where both signal and pump are delivered from a single laser source. Absorption and emission spectra of the Cr:ZnSe are perfectly positioned to amplify the output of the cascade Er:YO laser, when the 1.

Lasing of surface-polished polycrystalline Ho: YAG (yttrium aluminum garnet) fiber.

A polycrystalline 1.5% Ho: YAG fiber with a diameter of 31 µm was prepared. Surface roughness from grain boundary grooving was reduced by polishing, which decreased the fiber scattering coefficient from 76 m to 35 m.

Power scaling of ultrafast laser inscribed waveguide lasers in chromium and iron doped zinc selenide.

We report demonstration of Watt level waveguide lasers fabricated using Ultrafast Laser Inscription (ULI). The waveguides were fabricated in bulk chromium and iron doped zinc selenide crystals with a chirped pulse Yb fiber laser. The depressed cladding structure in Fe:ZnSe produced output powers of 1 W with a threshold of 50 mW and a slope efficiency of 58%, while a similar structure produced 5.